Salome (1918)

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Movie
Original title Salome
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1918
length 8 acts, 80 minutes
Rod
Director J. Gordon Edwards
script Adrian Johnson
production William Fox for Fox Film
music George Rubenstein (1918)
camera John W. Boyle ,
George Schneiderman ,
Harry Gerstad
occupation

Salome is an American silent film drama directed by J. Gordon Edwards from 1918. The screenplay by Adrian Johnson was based on the story of the ancient historiographer Flavius ​​Josephus . The title role was played by Theda Bara , America's first sex icon on the big screen.

action

Salome seeks the power of King Herod with cunning. She has eliminated Herod's main rival and brings about the death of his wife by her own betrayal. John the Baptist, who enjoys popular support, denounces Herod and his court. In order to prevent unrest, Herod has him arrested and thrown in prison. There he meets Salome and is passionate about him. But when Johannes rejects her advances, she seeks vengeance, hurt. She can inspire Herod with a sensual dance and demands the head of John as a reward. But this act brings you your own death. It is crushed between the pointed shield bosses of the Roman legionaries.

background

The decorations and costumes were designed by George James Hopkins , the exterior shots took place in Palm Canyon, California, USA. Photographers were John W. Boyle , George Schneiderman and Harry Gerstad . The film premiered on August 10, 1918 in America and was released in theaters on October 6, 1918. It also ran in Europe, France and Portugal, even Japan, where it premiered on April 14, 1921. The cinema music was composed in 1918 by George Rubenstein.

reception

The film received positive reviews from the critics.

  • The New York Times of October 7, 1918 read:

“William Fox last night presented Theda Bara in“ Salome ”on the screen of the Forty-fourth Street Theater, in a photoplay which for richness and extent of pageantry, sumptuousness of setting, and color or detail has few equals among motion-picture productions . And Theda Bara in the title rôle was all that those who have seen her in other films might expect — every minute the vampire, in manner and movement and expression. ”

It was also a commercial success. The audience flocked to the movie theaters to see Theda Bara.

  • The Moving Picture World No. 1288 headline on March 8, 1919:

“Biggest Money Maker Yet! Book It Now! Theda Bara in Salome. Even Outdrawing Cleopatra! ”.

In line with her constant efforts to artistically upgrade her acting, “La Bara” wanted her Salome to look more serious than sensational:

“As Salome I tried to absorb the poetic impulse of Oscar Wilde. I tried to interpret the extraordinary, the hopeless moral disintegration of a woman's soul with sincere artistic effort ”.

A film adaptation of the Salome material based on the original and also in the spirit of Oscar Wilde was not made until 1923 by Alla Nazimova . But this was again not accepted by the audience because of its artistic demands.

The film was parodied in a scene from the two-reeler ”The Cook”, also made in 1918 , in which Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, hung with kitchen utensils, performs an 'oriental' dance à la Theda Bara.

The Salome material in particular and the Orient - or what people in the West thought it were - in general had a stimulating effect on other areas of art during these years. In the USA, compositions of light music that focused on the Orient, vampires and erotic dance were created, in Germany several "Salome" films, plus in 1918 the first "Oriental Foxtrot" by Robert Stolz , who got the title "Salome" and a Became a world hit.

According to Silent Era , Theda Bara's Salome film is considered lost.

literature

  • Jennifer M. Bean (Ed.): Flickers of Desire. Movie Stars of the 1910s Star Decades: American Culture / American Cinema. Rutgers University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8135-5072-5 , pp. 131, 134, 136, 294.
  • Petra Dierkes-Thrun: Salome's Modernity. Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetics of Transgression. University of Michigan Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-472-11767-3 , pp. 93-94, 141, 213, 223.
  • Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle. From the magic lantern to the sound film. Part of the picture by Wilhelm Winckel. Kindler, Munich 1956, p. 397.
  • Ronald Genini: Theda Bara. A Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp, with a Filmography. McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-9161-2 .
  • Susan A. Glenn: Female Spectacle. The Theatrical Roots of Modern Feminism. Harvard University Press 2002, ISBN 978-0-674-00990-5 .
  • Greg Niemann: Palm Springs Legends. Creation of a Desert Oasis. Sunbelt Publications, San Diego (CA) 2006, ISBN 978-0-932653-74-1 .
  • David J. Shepherd: The Bible on Silent Film. Spectacle, Story and Scripture in the Early Cinema. Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-51317-4 , pp. Viii, 200-201, 298, 318.
  • Friedrich von Zglinicki: The way of the film. History of cinematography and its predecessors. Rembrandt, Berlin 1956, pp. 503-504, 509, 520, 553.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. wiki: “The film mogul William Fox cast the largely unknown actress as a vampire for the film“ A Fool There Was ”(1915), which is based on the famous poem The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling . The flick was very daring for the time and reflects the fear of a society shaped by Victorian morals of unbridled female sexuality: Theda Bara plays a wicked woman who seduces and destroys men who have hitherto been innocent. "
  2. ^ Table of contents according to: Moving Picture World (New York City: Chalmers Publishing Company) 39 (3): 389th Jan. 18, 1919. on line at archive.org [1]
  3. ↑ cf. Niemann p. 286
  4. ↑ cf. Genini p. 1885
  5. ↑ shown at [2]
  6. ^ Bean p. 131, cit. after Susan Glenn p. 123
  7. ↑ cf. en.wiki The Cook , to be seen on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKimkxROXSo&gl=US&hl=en ( Memento from December 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ z. B. hits like The Vamp [New York: Leo Feist, © 1919], to be heard on YouTube [3] , to be viewed on Albert Haim [4] . Vamp Me , to be heard on YouTube [5] or I'm A Jazz Vampire , to be heard on YouTube [6] , plus dozen of 'Oriental' Fox Trots and Shimmies: Arabian Nights, Sand Dunes, My Cairo Love etc.
  9. ↑ Polyphon Record 50 158, Matr. 294 as: Salome - Foxtrot by Robert Stolz. Kapellmeister [Sam] Stern with his artist band from the Hotel Adlon, Berlin. Recording from 1920, to be heard on YouTube [7] . The Shimmy Vamp of the American songwriter Byron Gay (Berlin, Roehr, around 1919) was given the more evocative title "Song" Thousand and One Nights "" through Eddy Beuth in Germany , cf. worldcat.org
  10. ↑ silentera.com Survival status: The film is presumed lost